Soft Custard Sauce Recipe

For Cakes, Berries, Anything

If you’ve ever enjoyed a delicious custard sauce on a restaurant dessert, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to make at home. A few eggs, some sugar, milk, some vanilla and salt—ordinary ingredients—turn into a heavenly dessert topping that turns anything into a glamour dish. There are eight variations on the basic recipe, below.

Use custard sauce on fresh berries, sliced bananas, pound cake or any un-iced cake (you can add some berries here, too), fruit cake, pies and crumbles. You can pre-pour before you serve the dessert, serve it in a pitcher and let guests help themselves.

You also can compose a dessert, like the one at the left, in any glass, including a martini glass. This one starts with delectable blackberry berry purée which we purchased from The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley, then topped with custard sauce, some gourmet granola and fresh blackberries. Heavenly! You can use stewed fruits or make your favorite pie filling (or crumble recipe—add the streusel on top of the custard) instead of the puréed fruit.

Read our Custard Glossary to learn about the many types of custard. It’s fascinating!

Ingredients

4 eggs or 8 egg yolks

½ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

2½ cups milk

1½ teaspoons real vanilla extract*

See the variations below for more flavor ideas

*If you have a vanilla bean and prefer to use it, scald it in the milk.

Spirited: Omit vanilla. Stir in 1½ teaspoons brandy or rum extract just before cooling. You can use pure spirits too, to taste. We like orange liqueurs (Grand Marnier is just one brand) as well as cognac and rum.